fing, with the utmost rapidity, through an extenfive chain of conducting bodies. We fhall not offer any remarks upon these additional papers. We have perufed them without much intereft. They add confiderably to the fize of the volume, without furnishing any new information. M. Aldini's earlier memoirs contain very little which applies to the prefent ftate of the fcience; and his experiments upon the human body are of the fame kind as those detailed in the fecond part of his work. ART. XVI. Chronicle of Scotifh Poetry, from the 13th Century to the Union of the Crowns, with a Gloffary. By J. Sibbald. 4 vol. 8vo, Edinburgh and London, 1802. TH HE Chronicle of Scotifh Poetry does not contain much which will be new to thofe who are poffeffed of the publications made from the Bannatyne MS. by Ramfay and Lord Hailes, together with the ancient Scotish poetry of Pinkerton. A full copy of the works of Sir David Lindfay (excepting only the Four Monarchies), is given from the editions of Charteris and Dr Macha beus. Confidering the high reputation which the worthy knight long maintained among the Scotish peafantry, fo high as to be chofen in preference to the Bible, as the proverbial standard of truth, and even as the foother of their laft inoments, we cannot help thinking an accurate edition of his poems an acceptable prefent to the public. From his play, the most curious of all his works, Mr Sibbald has only given the fcenes contained in the edition 1602, omitting the introduction, interludes, and concluding fcenes, which occur in the Bannatyne MS. This omiflion we greatly difapprove of, as the fcenes omitted contain many curious hiftorical documents, as well as a frange picture of manners. It is true, they are interlarded with grofs indelicacies, yet not with worfe than are to be found in the writings of Dunbar, and many other poems in the Chronicle, nay even in the body of the play itself. Without adopting the fyftematic defence of indecency fet up by one learned editor, we declare ourselves under no apprehenfion of the public morals fuffering from the naked coarfenefs of an author, who can only be underflood by antiquaries. Their ears are, we have been told, like thofe of confeflors; and There's not fuch a word in Davie Lindfay,' is ftill a proverbial expreffion of difcelief. Hout awa' wi' your daft nonfenfe,' faid an expiring man to his pious neighbour, who was reading for his edifica to a chapter of the Pile; bring me Davie Lindfay.' and if we could banifh from the fashionable world the amatory effufions of Mr Thomas Little, we fhould be little anxious about the lickerous lays of father Chaucer, Dunbar, or Lindfay. Befides the poems of Lindfay, we recognize thofe of Alexander Hume, author of the Day Eftival, which have confiderable merit, particularly that on the defeat of the Spanish Arma la, although in many places bordering on burlefque. All Dunbar's poetry is printed from the Bannatyne MS. with great apparent 'accuracy. Two or three pieces, hitherto unpublished, have been extracted from the fame invaluable collection, which, notwithstanding, does, in our opinion, ftill contain much yet unprinted matter, which Mr Sibbald might have advantageoufly included in his collection, though at the expence of leaving out or fhortening his quotations from Barbour, Blind Harry, and Gawain Douglas, whose works are in every one's hands. Even fuch extravagant pieces as Lichtoun's Dreme,' Rowll's Curfing,' and Cowkelbie's Sow,' are worthy of being preferved, for the language and manners, though, Heaven knows, the matter is fufficiently contemptible. While we notice thefe omiffions, we may alfo remark, that the tale, How a Merchant did his Wyfe betray,' which, upon Mr Ritfon's authority, Mr Sibbald has inferted in his Chronicle, feems to have no pretenfions to be called a Scotifh compofition. Neither, in Mr Ritfon's copy published from a MS. in the public library at Cambridge, nor from one preferved in the Auchinleck MS. at Edinburgh, can we perceive grounds for this fuppofition; and, for the northern tone which it has acquired in the Chronicle, it is indebted to the avowed alterations of fpelling adopted by Mr Sibbald. In the third volume of the Chronicle, we find a collection of 'Gude and Godly Ballates,' intended by the compofers to fuperfede bawdrie and unclean fongs.' This device for edifying the young and gay, by applying facred words to popular airs, was a favourite experiment of the Reformers. The pfalms of Clement Marot were fung by the Huguenots to the air of Reveillez vous belle endormie; and Sternhold undertook his verfion, that the maids of honour and courtiers might fing them instead of fonnets. But they did not; adds Anthony Wood, with great naïveté, fave but a few.' Wedderburn, the religious poet of Scotland, carried his inroads into this province of the realm of darkness still farther. He not only adopted the tunes, but, as if the unbecoming affociation was not fufficiently burlesque, he even parodied the words of the favourite profane airs of their time. Mr Sibbald has published several hymns founded on the popular fongs of Down, belly, downe,' The hunt's up, I'll never leave thee,' Wha's that at my chamber door, N 4 John come kifs kifs me now,' &c. We differ from the learned editor when he fays that the hymn beginning, The wind blaws cald,' vol. III. p. 447. is doubtlefs to the tune of "Up in the morning early." On the contrary, we think the measure and inflexion goes much more readily to the tune of Drive the cold winter away,' which is much more ancient than is generally believed. The works of Dunbar, Sir David Lindfay, and other authors, appear to us to have fuffered in confequence of the rigid chronological arrangement adopted by Mr Sibbald, in confequence of which they are intermingled with other poems according to their fuppofed dates; and the reader is confequently deprived of the fatisfaction arifing from obferving the gradual progrefs of each author in compofition. The notes by which thefe poems are accompanied are not numerous, nor do they difplay extenfive reading beyond the line of national antiquities; but they are plain, fenfible, and generally very accurate. Where elegance has not been attempted, no cenfure is due, because it has not been attained. The notes of Lord Hailes have been, with a ftudious veneration, retained by Mr Sibbald, even where he states a contrary opinion. Both commentators appear to us to have fallen into a grofs error in attempting to identify John the Reif (or robber) with the famous Johnie Armstrong. John the Reif is mentioned as a hero of popular romance by Gawain Douglas in the Palice of Honour, written in 1501, and Armstrong was not executed till 1529. Although Mr Sibbald remarks the former circumftance, he does not contraft it with the latter. Mr Sibbald differs from Lord Hailes refpecting the date of a poem called a General Satire, in this piece, vol. iii. p. 221. The King and Queen are both mentioned; whence Lord Hailes has fixed its date as subsequent to 1538, when James V. was married. Mr Sibbald fuppofes the reference to be to James IV. and his Queen, and the ballad, of courfe, to be prior in date to 1513; because he conceives Ingles, to whom the poem is attributed in the Maitland MS., to have been Sir James Inglis, Abbot of Culrofs, celebrated by Sir David Lindfay, and murdered by the Baron of Tullieallan in 1531, feven years before the date affixed by Lord Hailes. But the miferable ftate of the country which the fatire defcribes, the allufion to the College of Juftice inftituted in 1532, and other circumstances of internal evidence, incline us to Lord Hailes's opinion; in which cafe, the author may have been John Inglis, called by Pitfcottie, Marihal. He was an actor by profeffion, and performed in the plays at the marriage of James iv. (Leland's Collection, vol. iv. 258.) When a young man, he witneffed the famous apparition of St Andrew at Linlithgow. See more particulars of himers' Apology, p. 617. Mr Mr Sibbald is widely mistaken in a propofed correction of the following paffage in Hardinge's Itinerary: Then fend a hoft of footemen in At Lammas next through all Lawderdale, The laft place, Mr Sibbald apprehends to be an error of the tranfcriber, for Tweddale,' vol. I. p. laft. But it is, in truth, the village of Stowe upon Gala-Water, fituated in what was then called Weddale. The Black Prieft of Waddell is one of the three perfons entitled to the benefit of the Lauch of Clan Macduff, as mentioned by Winton, B. vi. ch. xix. Mr Sibbald, in a note in vol. I. p. 358, has printed, from Millar and Chapman's Mifcellany 1505, an old jeu d'esprit, beginning, My Gudame was a gay wif, but scho wes right geud ;' -which he feems inclined to afcribe to Kennedy. It appears to us, in ftyle and compofition, to be very nearly allied to the Fairy tale in the Bannatyne MS. beginning, In Tiberius' tyme the trew Imperatour;' and alfo, to another poem of the fame whimsical nature, called Ane Interlude of the laying of a Gaift.' This laft appears to have been the compofition of James Wedderburn, the eldeft of three brothers of that name, who, about the year 1540, compofed certain interludes and plays against the Roman Catholic fuperftitions, which were acted at Dundee; and, in particular, according to Calderwood, he counterfeeted alfo the conjuring of a ghaift.' We have no hesitation, from internal evidence, to afcribe the other two poems to the fame author. The poems in the Chronicle are, in general, accurately printed from the original manufcripts. Inftances of the contrary may, however, be pointed out; as, in the names of the tunes quoted. Vol. I. p. 379, he gives us, Trevafs,' for Trenafs;'-' Lemman, dawis it nocht day,' for Joly Leman, dawis it nacht day; '— Ourbrans,' for Orliance.' Other inftances of minute error might no doubt be pointed out; but the general correctnefs of the work does credit to the diligence and attention of the editor. The gloffary, by far the most valuable part of the work, occu pies The etymology feems to be from we, fundus and dale, or the valley through which a river flows. But in Nennius, it is latinized vallis doloris, from wae, forrow. In the church of St Mary, at Stowe, is faid to have been preferved a piece of the true crofs, brought thither by King Arthur, which probably was fuppofed to fanctify the whole dale-3d Gale. p. 114. pies the fourth volume, contains no lefs than fix thousand words, and may be confidered as a very correct dictionary of the Scotifh language previous to 1600. There is prefixed, a fhort effay on the origin of the terms, Pili, Caledonii, and Scoti. Mr Sibbald has abridged, very neatly, the arguments for what has been called the Gothic fyftem of Scotifh antiquities. There is added, an hypothefis concerning the name of Edinburgh; and fome ingenious remarks upon the rythm of Saxon and Scotish poetry, with which we were much pleased. In the gloffary itfelf, Mr Sibbald difplays a great advantage over all late gloflarifts, from his intimate and habitual acquaintance with the Scotifh dialect as fpoken at prefent. It is impoffible to enumerate the abfurd etymologies which have been offered to the public, merely from ignorance in this effential point. We do not mean to fay, that the common and vulgar interpretation of a Scotifh word is uniformly to be received as its ancient meaning; but the former, although enlarged, reftricted, or varioufly modified, by the courfe of time, feldom fails to guide us to the latter. To this important requifite, the gloffary adds those of refpectable learning and indefatigable inquiry, which appear particularly from conftant reference to the dialects of the North. Mr Sibbald, a steady adherent, as has been faid, to the system of Pinkerton, which derives the Picts from a Gothic root, and fuppofes them to have tranfmitted their language to the Lowlands of Scotland, has the following striking remark: The Scotish dialect has a much greater affinity with the Anglo-Saxon, and with the Teutonic or Belgic, than with any of the Scandinavian dialects; and with refpect to the two firft, it appears, that a cognate word is more readily difcovered in the Teutonic dictionary of Kilian, than in the Anglo-Saxon of Leye.' The latter part of this obfervation, founded, doubtlefs, on Mr Sibbald's experience, will prove a ftubborn argument against thofe who derive the Lowland Scotifh dialect from their neighbours of Eng. land. Yet, in fome inftances, Mr Sibbald feems to us to have carried his reluctance to admit an Anglo-Saxon root, a little too far. For example, he derives fett, a conftitution, from faett, Swedith, medus vel ratio, which we would rather deduce from the Anglo-Saxon feht, pactum, fœdus. In like manner, the editor of the Chronicle is fometimes partial to a Gothic defcent. Thus, he inclines to derive Ketheryns, Highland banditti, from the Teutonic Ketter, infectator; whereas, it is the original Gaelic for a troop of foldiers, and was long and generally ufed under the abbreviated form of Kern, to fignify Irith or Highland thieves. See Derick's Picture of Ireland, &c.-The houfchold fpirit, called Brounie, has no affinity, as the gloflary affirms, with the Swedish Bry, |